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KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes Sign Stone Garrett

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The Kiwoom Heroes of the KBO League have signed outfielder Stone Garrett.  Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News writes that Garrett will make roughly $35K on a short-term contract, as Garrett is joining the Heroes as an injury replacement for fellow outfielder Ruben Cardenas.  A right flexor injury will sideline Cardenas for roughly the next six weeks, which provides some idea as to the eventual length of Garrett’s stay with the South Korean team.

This isn’t Garrett’s first trip overseas, as he played 39 games with the Sydney Blue Sox during the 2016-17 Australian Baseball League season.  It was an excursion during Garrett’s time in the Marlins’ farm system, though it wasn’t until he joined the Diamondbacks as a minor league free agent in 2021 did Garrett get onto a path to the majors.  He made his MLB debut with Arizona in 2022, then received semi-regular action with the Nationals in 2023 before appearing in just two big league games with the Nats last season.

Garrett has hit .276/.341/.492 over 361 plate appearances in the Show, though a whopping .369 BABIP and a 30.2% strikeout rate undermine what is a very impressive set of bottom-line numbers.  Most (271) of Garrett’s 361 career playing time came with Washington in 2023, but that season ended in late August after Garrett broke his left ankle and fractured his left fibula after crashing into the outfield wall in pursuit of a home run.

Understandably, Garrett hasn’t looked quite in the same in the aftermath of such a major injury.  He hit .249/.348/.333 over 302 combined PA with the Nationals’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates in 2024, and he was hitting only .087/.176/.130 in his first 51 trips to the plate with Triple-A Rochester this season when the Nats released Garrett in late April.  According to Yoo, Garrett was on the verge of signing with a Mexican League team before joining the Heroes.

Though Garrett might only be a fill-in for Cardenas, a quality stint in the KBO League could get Garrett’s career back on track, and perhaps line him up for another contract in either a foreign league or with an MLB organization.  Garrett is still just 29 years old and he has two years of minor league options remaining, so that status might draw some particular interest from big league clubs looking for roster flexibility.

Jiman Choi To Begin South Korean Military Service; Eyes KBO Debut In 2027

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Former big league first baseman Jiman Choi is returning to his home country of South Korea to begin 21 months of mandatory military service, according to a report from Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The eight-year MLB veteran hopes to continue his playing career with the Korea Baseball Organization in 2027, once he has completed that conscripted service.

Since 1957, male citizens of South Korea between the ages of 18 and 35 have been required to complete between 18 and 21 months of military service. Topkin notes that the soon-to-be 34-year-old veteran was able to delay his military service until the age of 37 due to his status as a legal permanent resident of the United States. This status allowed Choi to sign with the Mariners back in 2010 and begin a baseball career stateside. Choi made his MLB debut during the 2016 season as a member of the Angels and briefly appeared for the Yankees and Brewers before arriving in Tampa and breaking out with the Rays during the 2018 season.

Choi was a quality piece for the Rays across his five seasons with the club, slashing .245/.352/.431 (120 wRC+) in 414 games with the organization. Among players with at least a full season of playing time in Tampa during Choi’s time with the club, that wRC+ ranks sixth behind only Tommy Pham, Brandon Lowe, Randy Arozarena, Yandy Diaz, and Austin Meadows. Choi’s time with the Rays coincided with four years of the club’s five-season stretch of consecutive postseason appearances, and his performance in 29 playoff games for those clubs was very impressive. Choi slashed .221/.398/.412 in the playoffs with the Rays overall, including a .250/.412/.425 slash line during the team’s run to the World Series in 2020.

Choi was traded to the Pirates in November of 2022 and split his 2023 campaign between Pittsburgh and San Diego. Unfortunately, the then-32-year-old veteran struggled to a lackluster .163/.239/.385 slash line that year while being limited to just 39 games by injuries. He signed a minor league deal with the Mets prior to the 2024 campaign but was once again hampered by injuries and eventually departed the organization in June of last year. Choi has not played in affiliated ball since, and now he’s set to leave MLB behind.

While Choi has his eyes on participating in his home country’s KBO league to continue his playing career, there will be obstacles to that goal. The first is his aforementioned military service. Topkin notes that Choi is set to have a non-combat role (rather than serving in the active South Korean military) and will be able to continue baseball workouts and training when not working, but it’s worth noting that the veteran will be 36 years old when he’s first eligible to suit up for a KBO team.

Also, Choi won’t be a free agent as he enters the KBO, since he is still restricted by the league’s draft rules. It’s unclear whether a KBO team will have interest in drafting a slugger in his mid-thirties with a lengthy injury history, but it is worth noting that former big leaguers like Shin-Soo Choo and Hyun Jin Ryu have gone to the KBO after their MLB careers and played into their late 30s and early 40s. Across the KBO league’s 10 teams this year, 35 players are playing in their age-36 season or older, giving some reason for optimism that Choi will be able to leverage his pedigree of MLB success into a role with the league two years from now.

Regardless of what happens with the future of his playing career in South Korea, Choi departs MLB a lifetime .234/.338/.426 hitter across 525 games in the majors. MLBTR congratulates Choi on a fine MLB career and wishes him all the best in his upcoming service, eventual return to his playing career, and any additional future endeavors.

Ryan McBroom Signs With KBO’s SSG Landers

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The SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed former big league outfielder Ryan McBroom, as noted by Dan Kurtz of MyKBO. McBroom is set to make $75K while he serves as an injury replacement for outfielder Guillermo Heredia. Heredia is sidelined by an infection that’s expected to keep him out of action for at least the next six weeks. Typically, KBO teams can roster only three foreign players, but the league has an exception to that rule for players tasked with temporarily replacing a foreign player who suffered an injury that will keep them out of action for six weeks or longer. McBroom is joining SSG under this exception, and once Heredia is healthy and ready to return he’ll either need to be removed from the roster and placed on waivers or permanently replace one of the club’s other foreign players.

McBroom, 33, was a 15th-round pick by the Blue Jays in 2015 who made it to the majors with the Royals during the 2019 season. He ultimately played just 66 games in the majors across parts of three seasons, though he did feature prominently on Kansas City’s bench during the shortened 2020 season. That was the best campaign of his career in some ways; while he hit just .247 with a .282 on-base percentage, he slugged six homers and three doubles in just 85 trips to the plate while backing up Alex Gordon and Hunter Dozier in left field and at first base.

Overall, McBroom hit a roughly league average .268/.322/.427 in 177 trips to the plate in the majors before being released by the Royals in November of 2021 to pursue a career in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. McBroom signed on with NPB’s Hiroshima Carp for the 2022 season and ultimately spent two seasons with the club. While he hit an impressive .272/.352/.442 in 128 games during his first year of NPB play, 2023 did not go nearly as well. He scuffled to a subpar .221/.305/.354 line across 70 games before returning to the United States for the 2024 season to play in the independent Atlantic League for the Long Island Ducks. McBroom excelled in indy ball across 88 games, hitting .268/.376/.497 with 19 homers and 15 doubles in just 375 plate appearances.

That strong work with the Ducks seems to have caught the attention of SSG, and now McBroom will get the opportunity to prove himself in the KBO for at least the next six weeks. If he hits well enough, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the outfielder stick around in Korea, whether that ends up being with the Landers or a different KBO club that’s willing to part with one of its current foreign players in order to roster McBroom.

Padres Sign Kyle Hart

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The Padres announced Thursday that they’ve signed lefty Kyle Hart to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2026 season. He’ll be guaranteed $1.5MM, per FanSided’s Robert Murray, coming in the form of a $1MM salary and a $500K buyout on a $5MM club option for the 2026 season. He can boost the value of that option to $7.5MM based on escalators tied to games started. According to The Associated Press, the option price would climb by $250K if Hart reaches 18 starts this year, $500K at 22 starts, $750K at 26 starts, and $1MM if he starts 30 games. There’s also a $250K assignment bonus in the event that he’s traded, MLBTR has learned.

Hart, a client of NPG Sports, enjoyed a breakout showing in the Korea Baseball Organization in 2024 and has drawn big league interest throughout the winter. He’s the second starter the Friars have added in as many days, as San Diego also came to terms on a four-year, $55MM deal with Nick Pivetta last night.

Hart, who turned 32 in November, was torched for 19 runs in 11 innings with the 2020 Red Sox, his lone MLB experience to date. He has a fairly nondescript 4.36 ERA in 334 2/3 Triple-A frames as well, but a move overseas and some changes to his pitch repertoire unlocked new reason for optimism.

Brandishing a new sweeper, a heavier reliance on his changeup and using his four-seamer more at the top of the zone in South Korea, Hart broke out with a 2.69 earned run average over 26 starts for the KBO’s NC Dinos. He racked up 157 innings, fanned 28.8% of his opponents and issued walks at a 6% clip. That performance earned him the Choi Dong-won Award — the KBO equivalent of MLB’s Cy Young Award.

Hart now joins fellow newcomer Pivetta and holdovers Dylan Cease, Michael King and Yu Darvish in San Diego’s rotation mix. He could have to compete with Matt Waldron, Jhony Brito and Randy Vasquez for that fifth spot behind the four established veterans, but Hart at the very least seems like the front-runner to land that job.

It’s always possible that a trade changes the calculus, but the minimal 2025 commitments to Hart ($1.5MM), Pivetta ($4MM), Jason Heyward ($1MM) and Connor Joe ($1MM) over the past week have addressed several needs at bargain prices — at least for this year. (Pivetta will earn $19MM in 2026, $14MM in 2027 and $18MM in 2028.) Both Cease and King have popped up on the rumor mill this winter — Cease in particular — but as of this morning the Padres are reportedly planning to hold onto both. That can be revisited at the deadline if the season doesn’t play out as hoped. For the time being, the recent slate of cost-effective pickups seems to have filled various needs within the (very) tight confines of the payroll limitations president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has been navigating throughout the winter.

The additions of Hart, Pivetta, Heyward and Joe over the past week have pushed San Diego’s payroll to a projected $207MM, per RosterResource. That’s an increase of nearly $40MM over last season’s end-of-year mark. The Friars have a projected $259MM worth of CBT obligations as well, placing them a hefty $18MM over the $241MM luxury threshold. However, since they reset their penalty level when they ducked under the tax line in 2024, they’ll be faced with only the minimum penalty: a 20% tax on their current overages. That’s about $3.6MM in penalties right now, and it’s possible trades of players other than Cease/King could yet reduce the bill. The Padres have been open to offers on reliever Robert Suarez, and they’d surely be open to offers on left-hander Wandy Peralta or infielder Jake Cronenworth, too, if it meant shedding a notable chunk of either player’s contract.

Latest On Kyle Hart

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Thirty-two-year-old lefty Kyle Hart isn’t a household name but nonetheless stands as an interesting free agent for clubs seeking rotation depth this winter. The southpaw has pitched in just one big league season, yielding 19 runs in 11 innings for the Red Sox during the shortened 2020 season. Hart, however, has a decent Triple-A track record and just tore through the Korea Baseball Organization in 2024, logging 157 innings with a 2.69 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate. He was awarded the Choi Dong-won Award — the KBO equivalent of MLB’s Cy Young Award — for those efforts.

MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes reports today that Hart has some level of interest from six big league clubs, one of whom has been trying to free up some payroll space before adding Hart or another free agent. At the very least, that’s indicative of a team (or teams) being willing to put forth a big league offer to sign the lefty. Though there hasn’t been much reporting on Hart’s ongoing free agency this winter, he was linked to the Orioles, Astros, Twins, Brewers and Yankees in late December. More than half the league is reported to have at least checked in, though that obviously doesn’t indicate serious interest from all those parties.

Hart’s breakout overseas is reminiscent of recent KBO success stories like Erick Fedde, Chris Flexen and Merrill Kelly, among others. That said, he’ll pitch all of next season at 32. That’s a notable difference from recent KBO-to-MLB arms. Fedde returned ahead of his age-31 season and had the benefit of being a former first-round pick and top prospect. Kelly was 30 when he signed a modest two-year deal with Arizona on the back of a terrific four-year run in South Korea. Flexen’s lone season in the KBO was his age-25 campaign. He returned on a two-year deal with the Mariners at just 26 years old. Of the bunch, Fedde’s $15MM guarantee over two years is the largest contract.

Hart is older than the rest of that group and lacks the prospect pedigree Fedde had. Like many of those pitchers, however, he’s benefited from demonstrable changes to his pitching repertoire since heading to the KBO. He added a new sweeper this season, began throwing his four-seamer up in the zone/above the zone to get some chases, and has used his changeup more heavily. His heater isn’t the type of power offering that modern teams covet, sitting low-90s and peaking around 94 mph, but it’s generally easier for a lefty to get by with lesser velocity than a righty.

Whether that’s enough to sell a major league front office on his viability as a big league rotation cog remains to be seen. Fedde, the most successful of the group in the KBO, won the Choi Dong-won and was named KBO MVP after posting a flat 2.00 ERA with better strikeout and walk rates (29.5% and 4.9%, respectively) than Hart turned in this past season.

If not a return to Major League Baseball, Hart will still have ample opportunity to earn money in Asia. He’s drawn interest from both KBO clubs and teams in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, per Dierkes.

Dodgers Sign Hyeseong Kim

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With hours left to go before his posting window closes, Hyeseong Kim and the Dodgers signed a three-year contract worth $12.5MM. The deal includes a two-year club option (which would need to be exercised together) covering the 2028-29 seasons. If the Dodgers exercise the option, they’d pay an additional $9.5MM over those two years. Los Angeles designated catcher Diego Cartaya for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot. Kim is represented by CAA Sports.

Kim’s former team, the Kiwoom Heroes, officially posted him on December 5, giving him until 4:00 PM CT this afternoon to sign with an MLB club. As the days ticked by and the rumor mill remained relatively quiet, it seemed like a legitimate possibility that Kim would return for one more season with the Heroes. Instead, the Dodgers, who hadn’t been closely linked to Kim this winter, swooped in and made a winning offer in the nick of time. In addition to Kim’s salary, the Dodgers will have to pay a $2.5MM release fee to the Heroes (20% of the guaranteed $12.5MM on his deal). Their total investment is $15MM.

Kim, soon to be 26, is a four-time consecutive winner of the KBO Golden Glove Award, given annually to the best overall player at each position. He won the award at shortstop in 2021 before moving to second base and winning each year from 2022-24. In addition to playing a strong second base and at least a capable shortstop, Kim is also an asset on the basepaths. He led the KBO in stolen bases in 2021 and has swiped at least 20 bags in all seven full seasons of his career. His glove and legs should give him a relatively high floor as a utility player in MLB, if nothing more.

The big question is how Kim’s bat will hold up against MLB pitching. While he struggled at the plate early in his career, the lefty batter blossomed into a well-above-average hitter during his last three years in the KBO. From 2022-24, he produced a .326 batting average and a .384 OBP, while his wRC+ was never below 118 in any season. However, Kim has never hit for much power, even by the slightly lower power standards of the KBO. His 2024 season was the best of his career power-wise – he reached double-digit home runs for the first time – but his .132 isolated power was still below league average.  Thus, it’s fair to worry that Kim might not have the necessary power to be an everyday player in MLB. Just look at his former KBO teammate Ha-Seong Kim. Ha-Seong Kim was a genuine power threat in the KBO, socking 30 homers in 138 games during his final season in Korea. Since coming to MLB, he has become known as a soft-hitting contact specialist. His career .137 ISO in MLB is 15% worse than the league average over the last four years.

When MLBTR ranked Hyseong Kim at no. 26 on our Top 50 Free Agents list, we predicted he’d sign a three-year, $24MM contract. His actual deal guarantees him a little more than half of that predicted salary. That said, it’s worth mentioning that Kim reportedly turned down more money from at least one other team. A representative from Kim’s agency, CAA Baseball, told a Korean media outlet (passed along by Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News) that the Angels offered him a five-year, $28MM deal, while the Mariners, Cubs, and Padres also made offers with undisclosed terms. Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register contradicts that report. According to Fletcher, the Angels made an offer to Kim but did not top what he received from the Dodgers.

To that point, Kim might not have a guaranteed starting role in L.A. The Dodgers already have Gavin Lux to play second base, Mookie Betts at shortstop, and Max Muncy holding down the hot corner. Furthermore, they have the talented defensive shortstop Miguel Rojas and the versatile Chris Taylor on the bench. Center fielder Tommy Edman can also play all around the infield.

According to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, Kim will play a “super-utility role” in 2025. The use of the prefix “super” seems to imply that he’ll be playing several positions. While he has significant experience at both shortstop and second base, he has only played a handful of games at third base in his professional career. He also played 44 games in left field during the 2020 season, and it will be interesting to see if the Dodgers consider using him in the outfield at all. As a “super-utility” player, Kim will presumably have a bigger role than that of a typical bench bat, but with so much competition on the Dodgers’ talent-filled roster, he’ll have to earn his playing time.

The fact that the Dodgers signed Kim despite already having so many infielders is evidence of how much this team values depth and flexibility. It’s also a sign of how much they value what Kim can bring to the table. Funnily enough, manager Dave Roberts has already made his team’s affinity for Kim quite clear. After the Dodgers played an exhibition match against the Korean national team last March, Roberts told reporters (including Yoo), “Our scouts like the second baseman: just the way his body moves.” That second baseman, of course, was Kim.

Various reports out of South Korea were first with the news that Kim was signing with Los Angeles on a three-year deal with a two-year club option. Jon Heyman of the New York Post was first to report the $12.5MM guarantee and the $22MM maximum value.

KBO’s Doosan Bears Sign Zach Logue

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The Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed left-hander Zach Logue to an $800K contract, reports Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. That includes a $100K signing bonus for the MSM Sports Management client. As a corresponding move, Doosan voided its previous agreement with righty Thomas Hatch because of concerns about his physical.

That opens an opportunity for the 28-year-old Logue. The southpaw is coming off an excellent Triple-A showing. Logue pitched 97 1/3 innings of 2.59 ERA ball in the upper minors between the Braves and Dodgers systems. That earned him a late-season cameo with Los Angeles. Logue pitched twice for the Dodgers and gave up four runs over two innings.

Logue has appeared in the majors in three consecutive seasons. The majority of that experience came with the A’s in 2022. He started 10 of 14 appearances that year, struggling to a 6.79 earned run average over 57 innings. Logue made three long relief appearances for the Tigers the following season, allowing nine runs over 11 innings.

The Dodgers declined to tender him a contract last month. He could certainly have found a minor league deal if he wanted to stay in affiliated ball, but he’ll land a much better guarantee with the Bears. This will be Logue’s first overseas work after eight years in the minors. He joins fellow southpaw Cole Irvin and outfielder Jake Cave as the team’s three foreign-born players.

KBO’s NC Dinos Sign Logan Allen

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The NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization announced Wednesday that they’ve signed left-hander Logan S. Allen (not to be confused with current Guardians lefty Logan T. Allen) to a one-year contract (hat tip: Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Allen is represented by Roc Nation Sports. He’ll be guaranteed $700K between his salary and signing bonus, and he can earn another $300K worth of incentives.

It’ll be the first stint overseas for the 27-year-old Allen — a former top prospect who’s now bounced to seven different MLB organizations in his career, appearing in the majors with four of them. Allen spent the 2024 season with the Diamondbacks, pitching 28 innings of 5.46 ERA ball in the majors and adding another 96 1/3 frames at the Triple-A level.

Allen breezed through the lower minors and had a terrific season between Double-A and Triple-A as a 21-year-old back in 2018, but his results both in the majors and in Triple-A have generally been subpar since that time. He altered his repertoire this past season, however, debuting a new splitter that seems to have caught the Dinos’ attention. The pitch generated strong results and drew positive grades from both Statcast and Sports Info Solutions. The Dinos mentioned it in their press release, wherein GM Seon-nam Lim noted that Allen is expected to join their rotation.

Allen heads over the the KBO for his age-28 season, giving him plenty of time to potentially parlay a strong showing in Asia into a big league return. He’d hardly be the first player to do so. Because Allen debuted in the majors less than a month after his 22nd birthday, he’s perhaps younger than many fans might expect of a journeyman who’s been with seven MLB organizations over a nearly decade-long pro career. If he can make further gains with that new split-changeup, it’s feasible that he could garner a look from big league clubs in future offseasons.

Patrick Wisdom To Sign With KBO’s Kia Tigers

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Infielder Patrick Wisdom has reached an agreement with the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization, as noted by Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. Yoo notes that the deal is currently pending a physical. The Naranjeros de Hermosillo, for whom Wisdom had been playing in the Mexican Pacific Winter League, announced earlier today that they’ve removed Wisdom from their roster in deference to the wishes of his new club after the sides agreed to a deal.

Wisdom, 33, was a first-round pick by St. Louis back in 2012 but but didn’t make his big league debut until 2018. After making it into just 43 games across three seasons in the majors with the Cardinals, Rangers, and Cubs, he settled into a regular role with Chicago during the 2021 season. As a 29-year-old rookie that year, Wisdom took over the everyday third base job from outgoing star Kris Bryant and performed admirably in the role. He hit .231/.305/.518 (117 wRC+) despite an eye-popping 40.8% strikeout rate thanks to 28 homers in just 375 trips to the plate and earned himself a fourth-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

That success Wisdom found in his rookie season suggested he might have a future in the majors if he managed to cut down on the strikeouts a bit, and he did that over the next two seasons. In 2022 and ’23, Wisdom hit a combined .206/.295/.453 (108 wRC+) with a 35.2% strikeout rate and 48 homers in 836 trips to the plate. By the end of the 2023 season, Wisdom had generally ceded his everyday role in the lineup to a combination of Nick Madrigal, Christopher Morel, and deadline addition Jeimer Candelario, and he headed into the 2024 season projecting as a bench bat for Chicago.

His time on the bench with the Cubs did not go especially well, as Wisdom posted his worst season since getting an extended look in the majors back in 2021. He stepped up to the plate 174 times in 75 games with Chicago this year and hit just .171/.237/.392 (75 wRC+). While his strikeout rate ticked down to “just” 33.9%, Wisdom struggled to generate his trademark power with just eight home runs this year, and his walk rate suffered as he took a free base just 5.7% of the time. That steep decline in production in conjunction with Wisdom’s ever-shrinking role on the team led the Cubs to non-tender him last month, at which point he joined the free agent market.

Now, it appears he’ll head overseas to test his abilities in KBO league play, which is notoriously devoid of high-end power hitters. Former big league Matt Davidson led the league with 46 home runs last year and sported a high-power, strikeout-heavy profile similar to Wisdom during his time in the majors, so it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that Wisdom winds up doing quite well for himself as part of a Tigers offense that already led the KBO league in slugging percentage this past season.

Cody Ponce Signs With KBO’s Hanwha Eagles

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After a rough season in NPB, right-hander Cody Ponce is trying his luck in the KBO. The Hanwha Eagles announced that they have signed Ponce to join their pitching staff in 2025 (h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). His contract is a one-year deal worth $1MM in USD, and it includes a $200K signing bonus (per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News).

Ponce began his professional career in the Brewers organization, agreeing to a $1.108MM signing bonus as the 55th overall pick in the 2015 draft. While he was never a highly-regarded prospect, Baseball America ranked him at no. 9 in Milwaukee’s system entering the 2016 season and included him among the team’s top 30 in each of the next three years. His minor league numbers were typically solid if never especially inspiring; over 394 innings in the Brewers org from Rookie Ball to Double-A, he pitched to a 3.72 ERA and 3.62 FIP. He looked sharper after moving into a more regular relief role at Double-A Biloxi partway through the 2018 season, putting up a 3.29 ERA and 3.11 FIP in 82 IP.

The Brewers dealt Ponce to the Pirates in exchange for Jordan Lyles at the 2019 trade deadline. It was with Pittsburgh that the right-hander made his few big league appearances, pitching in 20 games from 2020-21. Over 55 1/3 innings, he allowed 34 runs (30 earned), good for a 5.86 ERA. He gave up 13 home runs and struck out just 19.6% of the batters he faced. While his 4.38 SIERA was a little more promising than the rest of his numbers, he failed to impress the Pirates brass. At the end of the 2021 season, the team granted him his release to pursue an opportunity in Japan.

Ponce spent the 2022 and ’23 seasons with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He looked solid with the Fighters, pitching to a 3.35 ERA over 83 1/3 innings in 2022 and a 3.66 ERA over 51 2/3 innings in 2023. However, things took a turn for the worse after he signed with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles for the 2024 campaign. Across 67 innings, he put up an ugly 6.72 ERA. His 3.50 strikeout-to-walk ratio was actually significantly better than it was in his first two NPB seasons, and his home run rate was only slightly higher than the league average. Nevertheless, he struggled badly to keep hitters off the bases and runs off the board. On the bright side, his numbers were much better with the club’s farm team in the Eastern League, with whom he pitched to a 2.25 ERA in another 60 innings of work.

As he heads from one Eagles club to another, Ponce will hope for better results on balls in play in his age-31 season. If he can perform more like he did in his first two NPB seasons, he has the skills to be a productive arm for the Hanwha Eagles in 2025.

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